AMERICA'S MUSLIM-LOVING UNIVERSITIES

They much prefer aggressive foreign Muslims to law-abiding American conservatives

"A mob of Arab students at San Francisco State University attacked a group of College Republicans on the San Francisco State University campus at noon today during a "Turnout the Vote" event in front of the campus student union building.

Derek Wray, President of the SFSU College Republicans, told Front Page Magazine that an angry mob of Palestinian students attacked the club's table, as well as individual members of the Republican club who were handing out pro-Bush/Cheney campaign materials. According to Wray, campus police were nearby, but "just stood around watching and, instead of protecting the College Republican students from the mob that was pouring drinks on our table and materials, and even physically assaulting our members, only suggested that the campus Republicans leave rather than arrest those responsible for the violence."

Wray said the incident began when four Palestinian women from the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) on the S.F. State campus approached the CRs' table and began a verbal tirade. "You and the Jews want to kill all the Muslims!" one screamed at Wray. "You and Ariel Sharon want to kill innocent Palestinian babies." A larger crowd of male Arab students then joined in creating a threatening mob in front of the table.

"When one of the Republican students asked one of the women that if she hated America so much, why she didn't leave, she screamed at him `I have some pride. I would strap a bomb on myself and blow myself up as a suicide bomber rather than call myself an American,'"according to Wray. He said the woman also ranted that terrorists are "freedom fighters."

"One woman said she'd blow up the College Republicans on campus," Wray continued. "They began throwing food at us and even tried to tip over our table." The campus police did nothing. Instead of separating them from our table, they kept pulling me aside and asking if we were willing to leave."

One of the Arab women even began hitting one of the male college Republicans who deflected her blows with his arms. "She got right into his face screaming and trying to hit him. When he deflected one of her blows she then yelled to the male Arabs present that the Republican student was hitting a woman." This is a tactic used frequently in demonstrations lately, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators send women in to physically assault demonstrators from opposing groups then claim that women are being attacked when they are physically stopped by victims....

The GUPS have attacked Jewish students and groups before on the S.F.S.U. campus, but this is the first time they attacked a group of conservative students, most of whom are not Jewish, because of their political views. Over a year ago, Jewish students had to be physically escorted off campus by 25 San Francisco city police officers during a pro-Israel rally on campus because of threats of violence by Palestinian and Muslim students there. Tatiana Menaker, one of the Jewish students involved, was later expelled by the administration for five years for hurling an epithet during the attack on the Jewish students, a sentence dropped by the administration after Front Page Magazine reported on what occurred on her situation. In addition, Hatem Bazian, a history professor at UC Berkeley who recently called for an "Intifada" in America was a former member and officer of the GUPS.

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AUTHORITARIAN EDUCATION

In an article published recently in Columbia University's Teachers College Record (which bills itself modestly as "The Voice of Scholarship in Education"), Drew University English professor Merrill Maguire Skaggs explained why she felt justified in making it a requirement in one of her classes that students register and vote. She wrote that while attending a meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education earlier this year, she was dismayed to learn that only 37 percent of college students had voted in the 2000 presidential election. From that, Prof. Skaggs concluded that if students participated in elections in greater numbers, they had "the capacity to swing an election." But because relatively few students vote, candidates do not "bother to address student issues thoroughly."

Feeling the need to do something, Prof. Skaggs hit on the idea of requiring all of her English students to vote. Although she tosses in such bromides as "citizenship comes first" (quoting a martial arts instructor who required all of his students to register and vote), she makes no effort to conceal the fact that her motivation was personal: "For me, making what I myself could consider a meaningful gesture was the important thing--the personal satisfaction of finding something I could do."

So is this a good thing to do? Should professors across the country (not to mention martial arts instructors) adopt Skaggs's idea and make voting mandatory? Is this a laudable attempt to promote good citizenship - or an indefensible abuse of power for personal satisfaction?

I take the latter view.

The job of an English professor is to teach English. That's it. Adding non-academic requirements to a course is objectionable, no matter how important the professor may believe them to be. Suppose that another English professor who feels passionately that students need to get in better physical shape (for their own benefit, and also to reduce the strain that overweight, sickly people put on our semi-socialist health-care system) mandates that in order to pass the course, all students must be able to run a mile in less than eight minutes. Undoubtedly, this is a "meaningful gesture" in the critical war against obesity. True, getting in shape for the run would take a lot more time from the students than registering and voting, but it's a difference only in degree, not in kind.

Such a fitness requirement would be roundly condemned as none of the professor's business. I can see no reason to regard a voting requirement differently......


Skaggs says that "it's time for students to seize their power." Alas, the chief problem with the United States is rooted in groups "seizing their power" and using the political system to help them get what they want, inevitably at the expense of others. With her "you must vote because I say so" attitude, she has set a bad example and given a small boost to the authoritarianism she thinks she is combating.


More here.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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